Completed house sales in Wales slump by 60%

Wales has recorded a 60% drop in the number of home sales completed in the first quarter of 2023 compared to last year.

Analysis of Land Registry data by Nested found that Wales and the English East Midlands have seen the largest year-on year reductions in market activity in the last 12 months.

Almost 77,500 homes have sold across England and Wales so far this year – 58% fewer than the 171,000 sold during the same time period last year.

Anglesey recorded the biggest decline in house sales in Wales, 70% down on 2022, and recorded the second highest reduction in Wales and England, behind North West Leicestershire (73%).

Regionally, the South East of England has seen the most transactions so far in 2023 at 12,822, 58% fewer than last year.

At local authority level, Birmingham recorded the most homes have sold this year, with 1,070 transactions completed between January and March. Leeds (1,043), North Yorkshire (938), Cornwall (920) and Somerset (876) also made the top five.

However, every single area of the market across Wales and England has seen a decline in market activity when compared to the same period last year.

Turbulence

Alice Bullard, managing director at Nested, commented: “The higher cost of living, increasing interest rates, a disastrous mini budget and the resulting turbulence seen across the mortgage sector all had a significant impact on buyer demand levels during the closing stages of last year.

“While 2022 may seem a long way away now, what we’re currently seeing is the knock-on effect from this reduction in market activity, with the lower level of sales agreed now reaching completion.

“The good news is that the industry has widely reported an uplift in activity almost immediately in 2023 and so while we’re yet to see this materialise in terms of actual homes sold, we can expect to see an uplift over the coming months as these sales finally reach the finish line.”